I am a die-hard believer in personal growth and development. I’m always reading books about how to expand my mind, increase my productivity, and better myself overall. The book I’m reading right now is called “The Cash Flow Quadrant” by Robert Kiyosaki (famous for his first book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”).

This book is opening my mind with every page I read and I highly recommend it. I recently found a video that shows Robert Kiyosaki explain his Cash Flow Quadrant concept. In addition, he explains how Network Marketing (MLM) companies fit into the Cash Flow Quadrant and why he endorses these types of businesses. This video is about 10 minutes long, but it’s worth watching.

MLM & Robert Kiyosaki’s Cash Flow Quadrant is a post from the Maakoa Success Blog. © 2009 - All Rights Reserved.

Building your network marketing business is like a marathon… it’s not a sprint. Contrary to what some people believe, your business is not a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. Yes, some people build their businesses faster than others and start making money quickly. However, for most people it takes time to accomplish our goals, to build our teams, and build up our incomes. Like a marathon, you have to build your business one step at a time. Running an entire marathon is a huge goal, but anyone can do it with the right mindset.  The same is true of your business – take small steps towards reaching your goal every day and with the right mindset you WILL achieve success.

Here’s a great video that helps reinforce this point:

Building Your Business is Like a Marathon is a post from the Maakoa Success Blog. © 2009 - All Rights Reserved.

The U.S. is facing a huge financial crisis and something needs to be done if you want to get out of this tight situation.  They say that network marketing is an ‘Iron Rice Bowl’ – which is a Chinese term referring to a career path or a line of work that is immune to economic downturns. This video explains more:

People Turn To Network Marketing in Tough Economic Times is a post from the Maakoa Success Blog. © 2009 - All Rights Reserved.

So, you may be wondering who I am and what I’m all about. OK… I’m ready to tell you all about me! I usually go by the “Epiphany B.” online… it’s a long story and if you know me personally you already know the crazy details. My real name is Mikayla.

Is that beautiful picture to left really me? Not exactly. I think it’s a beautiful photographic representative of how I feel about myself and my spirit. And I think it embodies fearlessness, so I thought it was perfect for my Maakoa blog.

Some personal info…

I am a 35 year old single mother of two amazing kids. My kids are the best part of me and they inspire me to be the best I can be, to be a better person, to make the world a better place, and to never give up. In a nutshell, they are the driving force in my life, my strength, and the loves of my life. My favorite color is purple (lilac, to be exact). I love to read, both fiction and non-fiction. I like to dance and I love music. I prefer dogs over cats but we only have a fish (allergies). And when I’m not building my business or taking care of the kids, I’m often focused on my personal growth and development.

My Education

I graduated with a Bachelors degree in Psychology many years ago and am currently pursuing my MBA. I decided to go back to school to get my MBA after I began building an an Internet home business in 2006. I feel it’s important to learn the fundamentals of business so that I can create a solid foundation and further my success.

My Experience

I began building my Internet home business about 3 years ago when I happened upon a couple of online opportunities and what seemed like a whole new world opened up to me. I had no idea that people made real money online. I thought that making money online was all about scams and get rich quick schemes. I was very wrong about that.

At some point, a well known Internet marketer by the name of Ewen Chia introduced me to affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is basically a business model where you earn a commission of a sale of a product or service. I love the affiliate marketing business model because it allows people to get started very quickly, you have no inventory, no shipping, no customer service headaches, and it allows you to master the skills you need for almost any other online business. I still make good money doing affiliate marketing to this day.

As I built my Internet home business, I devoured every piece of information I could find on how to succeed. I bought more ebooks than I can count, I read blogs, I joined coaching programs, I joined webinars and teleseminars, I bought video training programs so I could look over the “gurus” shoulders, and I tried just about everything. I failed a lot along the way… but I learned a tremendous amount too. Most importantly I never gave up (and I never will).

Along the way, I taught myself HTML and some CSS too – the languages required to create websites. I began dabbling in editing and manipulating graphics and images (I’ve still got a lot to learn there) and I started my first website.

That’s when I found Wordpress… and I fell in love.

Wordpress is Content Management System (CMS) software that is used primarily by bloggers. Over the years, Matt Mullenweg (Wordpress creator) and his team have continued to turn Wordpress into the most versatile, flexible, incredibly powerful piece of software I’ve every come across. It makes building a website easier than ever and it has literally changed my life.

My knowledge about Wordpress (and what some would call “technical savvy”) led me to become a Wordpress blogging consultant. This opened up other consultant opportunities to me because – up until that point – I hadn’t realized just how much knowledge I possessed about building Wordpress sites, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and the various other areas of Internet marketing – such as social media marketing, article marketing, forum marketing, niche marketing, link building, and Pay Per Click (PPC).

My Commitment

I’m going to take all of my Internet marketing skills and experience, everything I’m learning from my MBA classes, and the valuable lessons I’ve brought with me from my past network marketing failures and I’m going to build my Maakoa business into a massively successful empire. I hope you’ll follow me on my journey and maybe even join my team to embark upon a journey of your own!

Everything You Need to Know About Mikayla is a post from the Maakoa Success Blog. © 2009 - All Rights Reserved.

First, I’d like to personally welcome you to MaakoaSuccess.com. I decided to start this blog a couple of days ago and the idea of it is still solidifying in my mind. You see, I have a really good friend who shared the Maakoa Opportunity with me. At first, I will admit, I was lukewarm on the idea of joining. Why? Honestly, because I’ve tried network marketing opportunities in the past and never had much success. So, why try another one?

Well, the main reason is because it’s an incredible opportunity and I know A LOT more than I did when I tried those other opportunities. Actually, A LOT (even in all caps) is an understatement. My first try at a network marketing business (otherwise known as MLM or multi-level marketing) was back in 2006. I was a green as a frog – I literally had no idea what I was doing. I thought I was going to “get rich quick” and that would be that – boy was I wrong!

Over the next couple of years, I tried 3 or 4 more network marketing opportunities. I tried several different marketing methods, but concentrated mostly on Internet marketing because I was learning so much and it was incredibly fascinating to me (still is). The learning curve is pretty steep when you first start out with any type of business and coupled with my unrealistic expectations… well then you’ve got almost a sure failure on your hands.

Not to mention the people who brought me in those other network marketing businesses were terrible leaders and did not help me in the least!

Now that I’m a lot more seasoned, I understand the formula:

Focus + Commitment + Consistent Action = SUCCESS

I’ve decided to go all out – I’m going to apply everything I know and commit 100% to building a business with Maakoa! Plus, the best part is that my dear friend has secured himself a Master Distributor Position. What this means is he in a top leadership position in this business – right under the founders. This is important because in Network Marketing the people who are above you is important because of the way overflow works. I’ll get into that in more detail later, but suffice it to say that joining our team is probably the best decision you could make right now.

So, here I am. I’m going full steam ahead with my Maakoa business and I’m going to give it everything I’ve got! And, I’m going to be blogging about it as I go. I’ll be sharing what marketing methods I use, what follow up techniques I use, and I’ll share my successes – and even my failures – with you. It’s going to be a wild ride and I could not be more excited!

Will you come along for the ride?

Join Me On My Maakoa Success Journey! is a post from the Maakoa Success Blog. © 2009 - All Rights Reserved.